Arguably Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria’s current ratings in some of the global socioeconomic and development rankings is not very reassuring.

Rankings, largely a statistical/socioeconomic tool for monitoring and evaluation, are very useful for the measurement of impact and the development of reforms and policies and indicate a nation’s position relative to other countries in the particular index.

In some recent assessments, Nigeria has now become a global symbol of massive illiteracy and poverty, leading Pakistan in the number of out-of-school children and India as the previous
global poverty capital.

Agreed, development is not always linear but these ratings are not from some ranting rogues and we can no longer ignore the writings on the wall. Even if we do not want to adopt/adapt
some of the ‘global best practices’ in our reforms and would rather evolve our own ‘cultural
innovations’ in resolving some of our long-standing challenges, the ratings are still very useful for setting perspectives.

A review of some of the popular evaluations for 2018 reveals mixed movement (both negative
and positive) in ranking for the world’s most populous black nation.

For example, in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index, Nigeria scored 47.53 points out of 100 and Nigeria ranks 115 out of 140 countries. According to the 2018 World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rating, Nigeria stagnates at 145 among 190 economies surveyed. Transparency International latest ranking has Nigeria in 148th position out of 180. Nigeria scored 27 points out of 100 on the 2017 Corruption Perception Index.

Also, the Legatum Institute’s National Prosperity Index in 2017, Nigeria ranked 128th out of 149 nations, up from 135th position the previous year. The Global Peace Index ranks Nigeria 148 out of 163 independent nation-states.

According to World Health Rankings Nigeria’s Life expectancy stands at an average of 55 years, a ranking of 178 out of 182 nations surveyed. This means Nigerians die faster compared to our West African neighbours – Ghana’s life expectancy is 63.4 years while Benin Republic’s life expectancy is 61.1 years.

Why is everyone finding Nigeria wanting?

Certainly this is not some global conspiracy against the people of the ‘Niger area’ as the rest of the world prepares for F.I.R.E: Fourth Industrial Revolution Experience.

For a second, let us ignore these ‘globalists’ templates, techniques and theories’, let’s even
overlook global trends and cutting-edge technologies, let us look at ourselves in our own mirror and face the facts.

Did you know that in 2018, the National Bureau of Statistics reported that the youth
unemployment rate in the third quarter of 2018 increased to 33.10%, labour market unemployment stands at 18.8%, a whooping 3 million jobs losts, the Debt Management Office reports our debt profile rise by 114.05% to $22.1 billion as at mid-year, 2018 and the National
Population Commission, based on the latest United Nations estimates, put the populace at about 196 million with a median age of 17.9 years. This population is projected to hit 235 million in 2022 if the country fails to address its flourishing fertility rate.